Overseas Stop-Movement Order Follows Surgeon Gen. Warning

Army Paratroopers with the 173rd Airborne Brigade, prepare to board a USAF C-130 Hercules aircraft from the 86th Air Wing at Aviano Air Base, in preparation for airborne operations onto Juliet Drop Zone, Pordenone, Italy Feb. 21, 2019. (U.S. Army Photo by Paolo Bovo)

DoD has enacted a 60-day stop movement order for all defense uniformed and civilian personnel and sponsored family members overseas to help limit spread of COVID-19.

The orders follows movement restrictions put in place earlier in March limiting foreign travel, change of duty station and personal leave – and limitations are now being placed on exercises, deployments, redeployments and other global force management activities.

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Exceptions to the order – that could impact plans for some 90,000 service members – can be granted for medical treatment, certain US Navy vessel deployments, those already in transit and TDY ending while the order is in effect, or some other reason as approved by combatant commanders, the chair of the Joint Chiefs or the secretaries of military departments, according to DoD.

The order comes on the heels of a dire warning from the US Surgeon General, Jerome Adams, who holds military rank in the US Public Health Service equivalent with vice admiral / lieutenant general, who said “it’s going to get bad,” and urging people “to be taking the right steps, right now, meaning “stay at home.”